(locustella naevia)
The Grasshopper Warbler is a summer migrant to Scotland. It is usually found in areas of tall grasses and tangles of shrubbery - bramble and gorse bushes are particular favourites. It is a bird which is more often heard than seen. It has a distinctive far carrying call - a prolonged and steady whirrrrr, likened to a fishing reel being wound in over its ratchet. It has a skulking habit mostly singing from deep in some undergrowth though on occasions it will sit up on a perch.
The bird photographed at Prestwick was singing prominently from on top of gorse bushes at the side of Prestwick golf course near the bridge over the Pow Burn. Steady drizzle so poor light. The bird at Low Mains in the Loch Lomond NNR area was more typical keeping itself mostly concealed in willow scrub.